Yet, without the conquest of Constantinople, Russia could never carry the idea of Pansclavism: for in European Turkey a vast stock of the Sclavonic race dwells, from Bulgaria over Servia and Bosnia down to Montenegro, and across through Rumelia. Moreover, the conquest of Constantinople is the hereditary leading idea of Russian policy. Peter, called the Great, the founder of the Russian Empire, in making it from a half-Asiatic a European State, bequeathed this policy as a sacred legacy to all his posterity, in his political testament, which is the Magna Charta of Russian power and despotism. All his successors have energetically followed that inherited direction. Alexander movingly avowed that Constantinople is the key to his own house, and his brother did and does more than all his predecessors to get that key.
When the Empress Catharine visited the recently conquered Krimea, Potemkin raised to her honour a triumphal arch, with the motto—"Hereby is the road to Constantinople." Czar Nicholas has since learned that it is by Vienna, rather. Russia therefore decided to get rid of this obstacle, and to convert it out of an obstacle into a TOOL. A direct conquest would have been dangerous, because it would have met the opposition of all Europe. Russia therefore tried it first by monetary influence, and had pretty well advanced in it. Metternich himself was a pensioner to Russia. But the watchful, independent spirit of constitutional Hungary still hindered the practical result of that bribery.
And, mark well, gentlemen, in consequence of the geographical situation of her dominions, and being also sovereigns of Hungary, it was chiefly the house of Austria which was considered to be and cherished as the great bulwark against Russia—charged especially with a jealous guardianship of Turkish rights. And indeed had the house of Austria comprehended the conditions of her existence, attached Hungary to herself by respecting her independence and her constitutional rights, and developed the power of her hereditary dominions, and placed herself upon a constitutional basis, she could have maintained her respectable position of guardianship for centuries. Russia was aware of that fact.
It is the intrigue of Russia, which by money and emissaries for years before infused the notion of Pansclavism among the Bohemians, Poles, Croats, Serbs, under the crown of Austria, equally as among the Sclave population of Turkey; which encouraged Austria to attack Hungary, by promising her aid in case of need. If Austria succeeded, the constitutional life of Hungary, in many ways so offensive to Russia, was overthrown: if Austria failed, she became a dependency of Russia. And by the unwarrantable carelessness of some powers, the complicity of others, the latter alternative is achieved. Austria, who was to have balanced Russia, is thrown into her scale: instead of being a barrier, she is her vanguard, and her tool—her high road to Constantinople, her auxiliary army to flank it.
It would be not without interest to sketch the history of Russia step by step, advancing towards that aim by war and by emissaries, and by diplomatic corruption and corrupted diplomacy, from the time of Mahomet Baltadji, of cursed memory, through all subsequent wars—at the treaties of Kutsuk Kaynardje, Balta Liman, Jassy, Bucharest, Ackierman, Adrianople, Unkhiar Iskelessi, down to the treaty as to the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, and to the treaty of commerce which made two-thirds of Constantinople itself in their daily bread dependent upon Russian wheat, to the amount of thirty-five millions of piastres a year, while Turkish wheat was rotting in the stores of Asia Minor. By each of these treaties Russia advanced its frontiers, and pressed Constantinople more closely within its iron grasp; with such perseverant consistency pursuing her aim, that even in other political transactions, apparently unconnected with Turkey, it was constantly this which she kept in view.
As for instance, at the conference of Tilsit, when she surrendered continental Europe to the momentary domains of Napoleon, provided Turkey were consigned to her. And still she did not succeed—and still Stamboul stands a barrier to her dominion over the world. And why did she not succeed? Because the European powers, conscious of the fact that the conquest of Constantinople involves their own submission to Russia, have in the last instant always prevented it, by uniting to treat the Eastern question as one of life and death for their own independence.
The whole Anglo-Saxon race are bound by every consideration of policy to check the ambitious encroachments of Russia. It is not in Europe only, but in Asia, that you meet her. She knows that her dominion over the world must be short, while the Anglo-Saxon race bold a mighty empire in India. Moreover, you yourselves, by the extension of your territory to the Pacific Ocean, are drawn by a thousand natural ties of activity to Asia. Your expedition to Japan has a world of meaning in it. Great powers must have broad views in their policy: you cannot contain your activity, nor therefore your policy, within a domestic circle of your own. You are for the world what Germany is for Europe. As without the freedom of Hungary, Europe cannot become free, so without the freedom of Germany, Europe cannot remain free; for Germany is the heart of Europe. You, by having extended your dominion to the Pacific, become the heart of the world. You are brought into the compass of Russian hatred and Russian ambition. Either you or Russia must fall.
The balance of power, and thereby the independence of the world, has been overthrown by the connivance of the great powers at the overthrow of Hungary; and it can only be restored by the restoration of Hungary. As for Austria, she never more can be restored—she is not only doomed, she is dead. No skill, no tending can revive her. Having previously broken every tie of affection and of allegiance, she cannot maintain even a vegetable life, but by Russian aid. Let the reliance upon that aid relax, and there is no power on earth which could prevent the nations who groan under her oppressive and degrading tyranny from shattering to pieces the rotten building of her criminal existence. And as to my nation, I declare solemnly, that should we be left forsaken and alone to fight once more the battle of deliverance for the world, and should we in consequence of it fail in that honourable strife, we will rather choose to be Russians than subject to the house of Austria—rather submit to open, manly force of the Czar, than to the heart-revolting perjury of the Hapsburg—rather be ruled directly by the master, than submit to the shame of being ruled by his underlings. The fetters of force may be broken once, but the affection of a morally offended people to a perjurious dynasty can never be restored. Russia we hate with inconceivable hatred, but the House of Hapsburg we hate and we despise.
I have been often asked, what may be, amidst the present conjunctures, an opportunity to renew our struggle for liberty? and I have answered that the very oppression of our country, the heroism of my people, our resolute will, and the intolerable condition of the European Continent, is an opportunity in itself; but if too cautious men, having too little faith in the destiny of mankind, desire yet another opportunity, there is the prospect of a war between Turkey and Russia. This is a fatality, pointed out by the situation of Russia, and by the pressing motives, heaped up since the time of Peter the Great: and Russia will hasten to try the decisive blow, since she knows that Turkey becomes more powerful every day. Now, gentlemen, that will be an imperious opportunity to raise once more the standard of freedom in Hungary; and, so may God bless us, we are prepared for it. We cannot allow that our natural ally, Turkey, be flanked from the frontiers of Hungary at the order of the Czar. Turkey, by curious change of circumstances, having become necessary to European freedom and civilization, will find the kindred race of the Magyars to aid her, and by aiding her, to save the world.
The only question is, will the United States remain indifferent at the overthrow of the balance of power on earth? No, they will not, they cannot remain indifferent. Their position on the coast of the Pacific answers "No." Their Republican principle answers "No." The voice of the people, clustering in thundering manifestations around my own humble self, answer "No." You yourself, Sir, in the name of the people of Syracuse, which is but one tone in the mighty harmony of all the people's voice, have told me "No."